Champagne Lifestyle on a Lemonade Budget.

phoebe1989seb

Hi and welcome, Pauli  

The ballet sounds well worth checking out, sugarbaby.......I've not had a culture fix for ages. When times were different, DH and I would occasionally take a trip to London to the theatre (plays, not musicals although I do like a bit of Andrew Lloyd Webber) but can't recall the last time we did.

I've also finally finished the book I've been reading for ages (The Mirror and The Light) and have just begun re-reading Wolf Hall......

[Deleted User]

sugarbaby125 said:

My Champagne moment yesterday was watching Northern Ballet's Dracula. Thanks to the heads up from Spider In The Bath.   I realised that this was a BBC4 production so I was able to watch it for free on BBCI Player. It was so dramatic and the story telling was fantastic. The ballet dancers were all super fit, athletic and the most amazingly talented dancers. The male dancers made the women dancers appear light as a feather when they were lifting the women dancers. I would give this ballet 10/10 

Even though I love classical ballet, I am finding a preference for more modern ballets.   

I am so glad you liked Dracula.  

I saw an interview with the director of the ballet and apparently the cloak worn by the dancer playing Dracula is very heavy and gets in the way all of the time and so he does an amazing job to dance wearing it.

Like you I have also switched to liking more modern ballets - although I still have fond memories of the Moscow State Ballet when they came to the UK for the first time (pre Glasnost).  They were amazing.

If you have never seen the film White Nights you may enjoy watching it.  It is an older film from 1985 starring Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines.  Even if you do not watch the film search on YouTube for 'dance duet white nights film' to watch an amazing dance sequence between the two main characters mixing ballet and modern dance.

[Deleted User]

I thought I had better add a 'champagne moment' of my own.

I managed to buy a half bottle of reduced pink champagne last week (and then used some supermarket points to get extra discount).  And so for no reason whatsoever (no celebration, birthday or anything) we sat in our summerhouse, next to the wildlife pond, watching the birds visiting the pond (we get 33 species of birds in the garden) drinking the champagne at the weekend.  Lovely.

joedenise

Spider - just being able to spend time with your OH watching the birds visiting the pond is celebration enough!  Well done on the reduced pink champagne!

phoebe1989seb

carolbee said:

phoebe1989seb said:

Thank you, mrs_s and LL 

I've said it before but it's a real labour of love. We bought the cottage as a repossession and although the previous owners did live here for the first few years, it had been rented out for at least five years prior to being repossessed as the owners moved back to London. Neither the previous owners nor the tenants were gardeners and whereas in England most people would be glad of such a large garden and would buy a house because of it, here in Wales having a bit of land is fairly commonplace and often it appears that (possibly because of the often adverse weather conditions) the garden gets neglected.

DH recently met a couple (also from London as it happens) who about two years ago purchased a detached barn conversion in nine acres. The whole lot cost them less than £300k but they aren't gardeners, don't have pets/livestock and have just let the outside space run wild. Even the designated very large garden is completely overgrown which is a shame as the previous owner was a keen gardener who planted loads of expensive specimen shrubs etc...... I love a wild garden but I do wonder why they chose that particular house as they still have several very near neighbours so it obviously wasn't for the feeling of seclusion......

 Anyway, my champagne moments yesterday were DH getting hold of three large bags of compost - the little local garden centre had a 'two bags per customer' sign up but as he's recently brought a load of business their way they said he could have three (plus a small discount) 

As a result I've spent the morning topping up all those seedling pots! 

He also picked up three stunning apricot digitalis to go in the rose bed. Annoyingly, he was intending to bring some white ones home from the place where he's working as he'd been advised to chuck them. Having put them to one side, he later discovered that one of the builders working there had buried them under a pile of rubble  Apparently there are loads more where they came from though......

You should definitely do a blog, you write so beautifully 

Sorry, I completely missed this before, carolbee - thanks so much for your kind comments  I'd love to do a blog again, but it's finding the time. I keep saying I'll start adding pics to my Instagram but I select a few pics then don't take it further, lol! In my defence, I'm also trying to write a trilogy of pre-teen books - these do have a loosely based garden theme running through them though, so that almost counts. It's an ongoing project I've been working on for more than three years - I doubt they'll ever be finished, let alone published, but I'm enjoying the process!

Champagne moments over the past couple of days have been purely garden oriented - pottering in the sunshine, chatting on the terrace with DH when his working day is done, planning future house/garden projects - although as the thunderstorms/heavy rain are back, that might curtail outdoorsy stuff for a while and sadly many of the larger, heavier blooms are already suffering from the sheer quantity of water they've been subjected to. Ahead of the forecast rain I cut a few for display inside, but as always, I should've been less selective with the secateurs.....

Still, summer was good while it lasted! And although gate number 2 has remained at the planning stage (frame is built, but that's all), we have at least decided how it will look..... I just need to source an interesting decorative grille!

Whilst things were dry I managed a few progress pics - the roses are slower to flower than I recall over our previous two summers here, possibly because there's been so much upheaval of the rose beds, what with the laying of terraced paths through the centre which involved moving several plants. And of course there are the seven bare root roses added late in the day - these have leafed up nicely, but are yet to acquire any buds......

What haven't helped are the garden interlopers - in the form of a pair of deer, spotted munching on the temptingly fleshy leaves of a huge ground cover plant early one morning a couple of days back - as a few rose buds have been cleanly removed 

They are getting through a gap in the stock fencing that we've been meaning to patch up forever. As long as they don't eat/trample everything - and from their foot (or should that be hoof?) prints, they look to have been remarkably careful where they trod - I can forgive their intrusion. Anyway, they're rather more beautiful than the gang of escaped pigs I had to deal with last year!

Today's pics - phlomis, ferns, phormium and angelica in part of the newly created architectural bed, stripey rosa mundi and foxglove, rosa Lady of Shalott with rosa Kew Gardens behind and potted allium globemasters (bulbs 50p each at the end of the season.....great champagne moment!) beside the courtyard entrance.......

Wednesday2000

I love that last photo Phoebe.

Suffolksue

last photo would make a lovely card 

missychrissy

Phoebe - lovely garden. We are so lucky to have one. My youngest son has just built me 4 raised beds on a triangular piece of grass that didn’t really have any purpose. I’ve grown veg in pots for years and will continue to do so but I’ve now got a designated veg area ( picture put on the Prepping thread a few days ago). My garden is quite small but I’m trying to get it to serve many purposes: self sufficiency; a relaxing haven; a bird feeding station (I’ve moved their feeders to other side of the garden from the raised beds); a playground for my 9 grandchildren.

helensbiggestfan

beautiful pictures Phoebe......

here's what I have been doing.....Clearing builders rubble.  No wonder I couldn't get anything to grow. 😂.  It's a back breaking job.  Not exactly champagne moments, but oddly satisfying........

I've also bought something called claybreaker too.  So for now my incipient shrub border is all in pots.  

Raining heavily. Tbh I'm glad of a break today .....a little light kitchen painting.😂

sugarbaby125

My Champagne moment on Wednesday was my younger son coming home for a visit of at least 2 weeks.    He has an even longer summer break this year thanks to Covid-19.